African Diary

African Diary 

It took me a couple of taxi rides to the office to read this so it's not a long book, but it's still a good read. It's worth it just to read about Bryson's fear of flying - which he has every right to fear after his experiences in a light aircraft!

It reminds me of my first trip to Pulau Tioman years ago when flights took off from a remote airfield in Seletar (can anything be remote in Singapore?). Anyway, we had to loiter around the airfield in the open (no departure lounge ...) for a while and then all 12 passengers climbed up the gangway and even I had to stoop to avoid giving my head a bump on the entrance door. Accustomed by then to long haul flights back to Australia, it was a rude shock when the cabin crew (well, maybe he was also the co-pilot)gave us the run-through of available amenities.

"Please fasten your seatbelts, place the earplugs into your ears (what??!!)and if you feel faint use the fan in front of you to cool yourself down." Or words to that effect.

I used both the earplugs - it was noisy! Conversation was impossible above the megadrone. Also it was a pretty rattan fan, so even though I did not faint or anything so dramatic, it was something to do for the 20 minutes we bobbed about in the clouds. Quite an experience but we had a safe, if bumpy, landing.

But I digress. Read African Diary not only for Bryson's laugh out loud humour (the taxi drivers gave me sidelong glances to check I was not a crazy axe-wielding psychopath), but for the humanitarian message. The profits of every book sold go to Care, "one of the world's largest private international humanitarian organizations, committed to helping families in poor communities improve their lives and achieve lasting victories over poverty."

Organisations that help communities help themselves instead of just giving a conscience-satisfying hand-out are worth supporting. They employ consultation with the people who need their assistance, they treat them like the human beings they are and not some anonymous poor starving statistic. I like that.